In this singular enterprise, a system to endure for ages received its unpremeditated birth. It discovered to these adventurers and to their neighbours; to all who heard and could imitate, that, from the Roman colonies, a rich harvest of spoil might be gleaned by those who would seek for it at sea. It likewise removed the veil of terror that hung over distant oceans and foreign expeditions. These Francs had desolated every province almost with impunity; they had plunder to display, which must have fired the avarice of every needy spectator; they had acquired skill, which those who joined them might soon inherit; and perhaps the same men, embarking again with new followers, evinced by fresh booty the practicability of similar attempts. On land, the Roman tactics and discipline were generally invincible; but, at sea, they who most frequent it are usually the most expert and successful. The Saxons perceived this consequence: their situation on the ocean tempted them to make the trial; they soon afterwards began their depredations, and by this new habit evinced the inciting and instructive effects of the Frankish ad

venture.

CHAP.

IV.

of Carau

The piracies of the Francs and Saxons are not Usurpation mentioned in the imperial writers anterior to this sius. navigation; but they seem to have become frequent after it; for within a few years subsequent, the Francs and Saxons so infested the coasts of Belgium, Gaul, and Britain, that the Roman government was compelled to station a powerful fleet at Boulogne, on purpose to confront them. The command was intrusted to Carausius, a Menapian, of the meanest origin; but a skilful pilot and valiant soldier. It was observed, that this commander attacked the pirates only after they had accomplished their ravages, and never restored the capture to the suffering provincials. This excited a suspicion, that by wilful re

BOOK

II.

He teaches

A.D.

287,

the naval art.

missness he permitted the enemy to make the incursions, that he might obtain the booty on their return. Such conduct was fatal to the design of suppressing the piracies of the Francs and Saxons. It permitted the habit of such enterprises to become established; and the success of those who eluded his avarice, on their return, kept alive the eagerness for maritime depredations."

Another incident occurred to establish their propensity and power. The emperor, informed of the treasons of Carausius, ordered his punishment. Apprised of his impending fate, he took refuge in augmented guilt and desperate temerity; he boldly assumed the purple, and was acknowledged emperor by the legions in Britain. The perplexities in which the Roman state was at that time involved favoured his usurpation; and, to maintain it, he had recourse to one of those important expedients which, originally intended for a temporary exigency, lead ultimately to great revolutions.

As it was only by active warfare that his sovethe Saxons, reignty could be maintained, he made alliances with the Germans, and particularly with the Saxons and Francs, whose dress and manners he imitated in order to increase their friendship. To make them of all the use he projected, he encouraged their application to maritime affairs; he gave them ships and experienced officers, who taught them navigation and the art of naval combat. No circumstance could have tended more to promote their future successes and celebrity. They had sufficient inclination to this new path of action. They only wanted the tuition and encouragement. Fostered by this imperial alliance, and supplied with those essential requisites, without which they could not have become

1 Gibbon, 362. 1 Mascou, 243.

71 Mascou, 244. 1 Gibbon, 364.

IV.

permanently formidable, they renewed their predatory CHAP. attacks with licensed severity. Every coast which had not received Carausius as its lord was open to their incursions. They perfected themselves in their dangerous art, and by the plunder which they were always gaining, they increased their means as well as their avidity for its prosecution, and nurtured their population in the perilous but attractive warfare. The usurpation of Carausius, and this education of the Saxons to the empire of the ocean, lasted seven years.

with them,

Sixty years afterwards, a similar occurrence ad- Magnenvanced the Saxon prosperity. Magnentius, another tius allies usurper of the bloody and restless sceptre of Rome, having murdered Constans, endeavoured to preserve the perilous dignity by an alliance of fraternisation with the Francs and Saxons, whom in return he protected and encouraged. This was again one of those auspicious incidents, which enhanced the consequence and power of those tribes who had been invisible to Tacitus, and who had been merely known by name to Ptolemy. But as Providence had destined them to be the stock of a nation whose colonies, commerce, arts, knowledge and fame were to become far superior to those of Rome, and to pervade every part of the world; it cherished them by a succession of those propitious circumstances which gradually formed and led them to that great enterprise for which they were principally destined, the conquest and colonisation of Romanised Britain; and to be the founders of the great body of the English population; for, although Britons, Danes, Scoti, and Normans have contributed to enlarge its numbers, the far largest proportion of the inhabitants of England has arisen from AngloSaxon progenitors.

Julian Grat. cited 1 Mascou, 280.

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II.

CHAP. V.

The League of the SAXONS with other States, and their Continental Aggrandisement.

BUT in the beginning of the fourth century, the Saxons were not alone on the ocean; other States, both to the south and north of their own locality, were moving in concert with them, whose nominal distinctions were lost in the Saxon name. This addition of strength multiplied the Saxon fleets, gave new terror to their hostility, and recruited their losses with perpetual population. The league extended. Their depredations increased their population, affluence, and celebrity; and these results extended their power. What emulation, policy, or rapacity may have first prompted, success and fear made more universal. They who would not have been tempted to unite, dreaded the wrath of those whose proffered alliance they refused: and at length most of the nations north of the Rhine assumed the name, strengthened the association, and fought to augment the predominance, of the Saxons. Towards the south, between the Elbe and the Rhine, the Chauci seem to have led the way. The Frisii, urged by kindred passion and a convenient position, willingly followed. The precise date of the accession of others is not so clear; but in some period of their power the Chamavi, and at last the Batavi, the Toxandri, and Morini were in their alliance. North of their territorial position the Cimbri, the Jutes, the Angles, and others not so discernible, added their numbers to

the formidable league; which lasted until their expe- CHAP. dition to Britain', and then began to dissolve.

Without detaining the reader by a detail of the modern chorography answering to the position of these tribes2, it may be sufficient to state concisely, that the progress and leagues of the Saxon states enlarged gradually from the Elbe to the Weser; from the Weser they reached to the Ems; and still augmenting, they diffused themselves to the Rhine with varying latitude, as the Francs, many of whose allies they seduced, quitting that region, and abandoning their exploits on the ocean, marched upon Gaul. The extension of this new confederation was favoured by the change of policy and position adopted by the Francs. As this people stood foremost to the Roman vengeance, they experienced its effects. They had many distressing wars to maintain, which in time compelled them to abandon maritime expeditions, and to consolidate their strength for their continental conflicts. Their ultimate successes made this warfare the most popular among them. Hence, the nearer we approach the period of the invasion of England, we find the Francs less and less united with the Saxons on the ocean, and even wars begin to be frequent between the rival friends. As the former moved onward, to the conquests of Belgium and Gaul, the Saxons appear to have been the only nation under whose name the vessels of piracy were navigated. Saxons were the enemies every where execrated, though under this title several nations fought. Some of the tribes on the maritime coast who had composed

1 Spener's Notitia, 363-370. That the Saxons of the fifth century were an association of peoples, was remarked by Stillingfleet, Orig. Brit. 305.; and Langhorn, Elench. Ant. Alb. 342. See also Freret, Mem. Ac. Inscr. xxxiii. p. 134. ; and 2 Gibbon, 523.

2 This may be seen as to the Chauci, Spener, 302-313. Cluverius, lib. iii. p. 72. Cellarius, Ant. Geog. i. p. 298. As to the Frisii, Spener, 314-332. Cluv. p. 55. Cell. 295. As to the Chamavi, Sp. 260, &c. The same authors treat of the others.

V.